Butterick 6423 Coat – a muslin

No, I’m not losing my marbles, but I’ll admit this muslin has a bit of personality.

Despite its Easy rating, this lined Lisette coat is a fairly complex design. Tricky bits – the one-piece shawl collar, side/sleeve gusset, and pocket detail. Kick in a lining, and it’s definitely not a beginner project.

 

Butterick model

Note the slight narrowing of the silhouette – it’s real (hence the back pleat), and it does encourage the coat to open below the button, as seen on the model. Since I purchased the pattern to make a jacket, the latter doesn’t bother me.

Sewing notes:

• I sewed the size Small – great fit.
• My jacket is unlined, since I would seldom need the warmth of a lining.
• I shortened the length by 7.5″, to finish at 29.5″ below the base of the neck.
• Of course the back seam is too low for a jacket profile, so I raised it to finish about 3/4″ below the side/sleeve gusset seam. And I decided to gather the back skirt, rather than use a pleat (pleats that go awry make me nuts).

• Once I had the jacket constructed, I played with the collar. Without the ‘balance’ of the longer length, the collar is just too wide. I narrowed one side (the arrow side) so I could compare the two. I’m going with the narrowed version.

I know it’s hard to picture this jacket with all the fabric noise – squinting helps 🙂

And it’s time to think about a suitable fabric. The pattern suggests wool blends, boiled wool, mohair, wool flannel, and tweeds, and I agree a soft but stable fabric would work best.

Thinking of everyone impacted by severe weather this week, I hope you, your friends, and your loved ones are safe.

Coco

Monday muslin V8499 pants

Sometimes I just want to take another look at a pattern. I first made the V8499 pants when I was much heavier, and I was trying Lagenlook styles. Thinking about it over the weekend, and having a couple yards of available Brussels washer linen, I decided to try a smaller size. So a Monday muslin 🙂

First version:

Honestly, I don’t care for this style at the moment. But these pants are not wasted – they’ll be reworked as a straight leg pant. I would really like them in a corduroy for our brief winter. And those pockets are simply too good to ignore.

Undeterred, I’m about to cut out a True Bias Yari jumpsuit in Kaufman Essex linen, yard-dyed denim. I’ve enjoyed my espresso version so much.

And that’s Monday! BTW, the pattern has a super fun skirt as well, it would be great with boots and a short chunky sweater or jeans jacket.

Bye for now! Coco

Linen blouse trifecta

Fabric: Kaufman Brussers washer linen from Fabric.com

Before I got caught up in my recent kaftan, linen shift, and apron saga, I spent a few interesting days drafting a top for jeans. I’ve always loved a white blouse/jeans combo.

Trifecta – I used three patterns! The sleeve is from the Allie Olson Highlands Wrap Dress, the front bodice from the V-neck variation of Grainline Studio’s Alder dress, and the back is from The Sewing Workshop Trio Top.

Funky, right? Pics:

The real challenge was the back because the Trio top is quite boxy and oversized. I made a copy of the back of the Alder dress and incorporated the Trio detail to fit. Then I cut out the pieces, added width to the skirt center back for the gathers, and drew everything again with seam allowances. A jigsaw puzzle 🙂

(Below, I moved just as the camera clicked. Aaargh)

A kickback to the 70’s – I think I’d really like it in white cotton jersey as well.

Bye for now, Coco

Progress on Christmas aprons!

An apron seems such a simple project – but it’s not when one drafts 7 aprons in 3 sizes!

All fun. I serged the ends of my Marshall Dry Goods Dream Cotton and laundered it last week.

This morning I got serious. I needed to draft appropriate sizes for the family and to decision lining fabrics for the basic apron and the pockets. I used broadcloth to line all the pockets to keep them ‘light’ since my aprons are lined with the main fabric.

Here’s a view of the patterns I’m using. Each also has ties and pockets sized to the apron:

I have to credit several patterns for the result. I have Butterick 4585 (an adult and child apron pattern), but the child version is very small. Fortunately, I found some guidelines to help me out with that grandson-size conundrum.

Line art from Kwik Sew 3247, found by Googling kid’s aprons

Tutorial from Jedicrafts.com (and she has great fabric craft ideas and tutorials…

All day today I’ve been drafting patterns and cutting the fabric. Just the latter really does take a while. Apron, pocket, waist ties, neck tie, D-ring tab.

And, to my dismay, I found that my 1″ D-ring supply is down to one set! I have oodles of 3/4″ rings, but I like the larger ring for the neck ties. So – I hopped on Wawak to order more. BTW, Wawak’s shipping cost is really reasonable, plus these were on sale much below the retail store price. And they’ll be here in 3 days. Can’t beat it. I love Wawak!

While I wait for the hardware and generally get over this apron effort today, I’m planning to sew another French terry StitchSisters kaftan. I’ve worn both of mine in rotation for several days, and I’m hooked.

Happy stuff 🙂 Ciao – Coco

StitchSisters Kaftan in a knit fabric

This didn’t take long! After my 5-day linen version saga (here), I indulged my curiosity and sewed this kaftan in a knit fabric. This is a lightweight rayon/lycra French terry from Cali Fabrics. It’s so soft! This exact print is not available at the moment, but they have similar prints and many solids.

My first post has sewing notes and a link to the pattern, but here are a couple notes on this version:

• The first thing I did was to cut the back neckline too low. With the 75% horizontal stretch, it was just too wide at my shoulders. I took a small pleat, about 1 1/4″, at center back, stitched the pleat together on the inside for about 8″, and topstitched it on the outside to avoid exuberant behavior (I accented one side in this pic since the stitching is hard to see).

• After that little goof, the construction was straightforward. I decided to use the center front seam as suggested in the pattern, and I didn’t have any difficulty adding the neckline binding.

Happy pattern and dress 🙂

Many thanks to the StitchSisters for this lovely (free) download pattern and abundant sewing guidelines. I’m off to post on Instagram, the #sewingsansfrontieres pattern challenge.

Ciao! Coco

BTW, here are some more Igram links for the challenge hosts:

@sewing_in_spain

@hportemanteau

@suestoney